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THE 

AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 
ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY 
BY  THOMAS  WITHYCOMBE 


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IPUIIII  III '   I  'l    I     '     I     I   I?   it     I  '■'■■' 

The 
Agricultural  Bloc 

ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY 


BY  THOMAS  WITHYCOMBE 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  witii  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/agriculturalblocOOwitliricli 


THE 
AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY 


BY  THOMAS  WITHYCOMBE 


Copyrighted,  February  21,  1922.     All  Rights  Reserved. 
Price  Seveny-Five  Cents 


fV!A!N   L!r^F?ARV..AGR!C(JLTURE  DEP 


^^ 


DEDICATION 

I  dedicate  this  book  to  the  memory  of  my 
beloved  mother,  Mary  A.  Withycombe,  a 
very  spiritually  minded  Christian  woman 
who  gave  up  a  fine  home  with  cultured  en- 
vironments to  bring  her  four  sons  and  one 
daughter  into  a  pioneer  country,  in  a  for- 
eign land,  where  she  could  see  them  grow 
up  into  business  around  her,  one  of  whom, 
James  Withycombe,  became  the  Governor 
of  his  adopted  State,  and  died  during  his 
second  term.  At  a  memorial  service  held 
for  our  War  Heroes  and  the  Governor  at 
the  Oregon  State  Fair,  1919,  Circuit  Judge 
Stapleton  said  there  ought  to  be  another 
gold  star  in  the  flag  for  the  Governor,  as 
the  war  work  brought  on  his  death.  George 
A.  White,  Adjutant  General  of  Oregon,  in 
writing  in  The  Oregonian  of  the  world  war, 
said  some  kind  things  of  Governor  Withy- 
combe, as  follows :  "There  was  always  to  be 
found  firmly  behind  the  right  the  unflinch- 
ing suport  of  James  Withycombe,  then  Gov- 
ernor of  Oregon.  Not  once  in  all  the  mobili- 
zation and  later  draft  did  he  ask  for  a 
single  favor  or  exception,  although  the 
power  of  arbitrary  was  in  his  hands  and  he 
might  have  done  otherwise.  Time  and  again 
he  was  sorely  pressed  by  the  insistent  pleas 
of  politicians  who  wanted  to  traffic  in  the 
solemn  trust  that  sends  one  man's  son  into 
battle  as  the  leader  of  other  men's  sons.    But 


2  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

not  once  did  the  Governor  accede.  When  his 
own  son,  Earle,  decided  to  volunteer  for  the 
army.  Governor  Withycombe  sent  him  to 
me  with  a  note  asking  merely  that  I  inform 
the  young  man  what  to  do.  I  sent  him  to  Cap- 
tain Cicero  F.  Hogan,  in  charge  of  the  state's 
central  recruiting  station,  and  Captain  Ho- 
gan enhsted  the  young  man  as  a  private  of 
engineers.  The  examining  surgeon  turned 
down  the  enlistment  because  of  defective 
eyesight,  but  Earle  went  on  to  the  next  re- 
cruiting station  and  was  passed  by  the  sur- 
geon there  as  a  private  soldier,  in  which 
worthy  grade  he  served  through  the  war." 

No  incident  that  might  be  chosen  more 
clearly  measures  the  rugged  honesty  of 
James  Withycombe's  patriotism  and  char- 
acter. Such  was  the  man  who  held  the  helm 
of  state  throughout  Oregon's  war  emerg- 
ency. In  Governor  Withycombe's  character 
is  to  be  found  the  staunch  foundation  of 
justice  and  fairness  that  is  credited  to  Ore- 
gon's early  war  preparation. 

So  every  man  that  received  a  commission 
was  from  the  enlisted  ranks  of  Oregon's  citi- 
zen army.  In  the  formation  of  the  new 
units  the  captains  were  elected  by  their 
comrades  from  among  the  ranks  of  the  new 
unit  and  these  new  captains  in  turn  ap- 
pointed the  lieutenants  from  the  ranks. 
There  can  be  found  no  single  exception  to 
this  procedure.  Had  it  been  otherwise — 
had  the  leadership  of  units  been  political — 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  3 

who  can  say  how  much  larger  Oregon's  cas- 
ualty list  would  be  today  ?  Certainly  a  heavy 
added  toll  in  human  life  was  claimed  in  the 
world  war  by  incompetent  leadership.  Ore- 
gon has  no  such  murders  upon  her  con- 
science.. 

Shortly  before  they  sailed  for  France 
with  the  Forty-first  Infantry  Division  late 
in  the  fall  of  '17,  one  hundred  Oregon  offi- 
cers procured  a  large  silver  loving  cup  at 
the  port  of  debarkation,  had  engraved  upon 
it  the  record  of  their  esteem  and  sent  it  to 
Governor  Withycombe.  I  have  been  told 
that  he  treasured  this  beyond  all  posses- 
sions and  had  it  near  him  when  the  end 
came  at  Salem,  soon  after  the  armistice. 
Some  day,  doubtless,  Oregon  will  follow  the 
example  set  by  these  100  officers  and  erect 
a  lasting  memorial  to  that  most  estimable, 
honorable  and  useful  citizen,  James  Withy- 
combe. 

I  have  written  about  the  sadly  neglected 
rural  economic  life  of  our  country  for  over 
40  years  and  having  been  asked  to  write  a 
booklet  on  the  subject  by  some  of  my  friends 
I  have  offered  this  to  leave  my  impressions 
for  others  to  scan. — Thomas  Withycombe. 


Copyright  applied  for.    All  rights  reserved. 
Price  75  Cents. 


4  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

When  I  first  came  to  America  and  our 
population  was  only  about  one-half  of  what 
it  is  today  and  the  amount  of  lands  avail- 
able for  cultivation  so  immense  that  any 
plan  of  conservation  of  our  fertility  seemed 
almost  impossible;  but  now  after  50  years 
have  elapsed  and  our  population  has  in- 
creased almost  to  the  point  under  existing 
conditions  where  we  consume  nearly  all  our 
own  production  of  raw  materials,  we  can 
by  a  proper  adjustment  of  our  tariffs  work 
out  a  problem  of  conservation  that  will  im- 
mensely benefit  our  country,  both  socially 
and  financially.  The  subject  is  of  such  an 
immense  area  that  it  will  be  necessary  to 
take  it  up  in  sections. 

The  first  effort  I  really  made  to  bring  my 
views  to  notice  was  in  a  letter  I  read  before 
the  late  President  Roosevelt's  Shipping 
Commission  in  1904,  of  which  Senator  Gal- 
lagher of  Massachusetts  was  chairman, 
which  was  printed  in  the  report  of  that 
commission  and  is  as  follows: 

STATEMENT  BY  THOMAS  WITHY- 
COMBE 

The  Chairman — Is  there  any  other  gentle- 
man present  who  desires  to  say  a  word? 

Mr.  Withycombe — Mr.  Chairman,  it  may 
be  presumptious  for  me  to  address  your 
honorable  body.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  served 
as  an  officer  in  the  English  merchant  ma- 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  « 

rine.  My  father  emigrated  here  in  1871, 
and  I  transferred  my  lot  to  the  American 
merchant  marine.  Since  1874  I  have  been 
engaged  in  farming.  I  am  here  now  in  the 
interest  of  a  bounty;  that  is  to  say,  I  take 
exception  to  the  gentleman  who  said  that 
our  tariff  can  be  reduced.  I  do  not  think 
that  can  be  done  with  safety.  For  instance, 
let  us  take  the  Wilson  free  wool..  We  saw 
how  it  operated  here  on  this  coast.  I 
watched  the  foreign  market  and  the  home 
market.  When  the  free  wool  was  inaugur- 
ated Oregon  wool  was  8  cents  per  pound 
below  the  European  market.  When  the  Mc- 
Kinley  10  cent  tariff  was  put  on  our  wool 
immediatedy  jumped  ,8  cents  above  the 
European  market.  Tliat  showed  the  mer- 
chant in  Boston  had  failed  to  look  after  our 
interest.  I  think  the  tariffs  helping  the 
United  States  in  very  many  other  instances. 
I  have  a  very  short  letter  to  read.  There 
are  two  things  I  think  that  can  not  be 
helped  by  the  tariff  under  our  economics, 
and  they  are  suffering;  these  are  the  ship- 
ping interest  and  the  wheat.  This  has 
worked  great  hardship  on  our  people. 

Portland,  Ore.,  August  1st,  1904. 

To  the  Honorable  Merchant  Marine  Com- 
mission. 

Gentlemen — As  you  asked  for  opinions 
and  ideas  of  how  to  restore  the  American 


«  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

merchant  marine,  and  having  written  and 
talked  on  that  subject  for  the  last  fifteen 
years,  I  would  like  to  submit  a  few  ideas  on 
the  subject. 

The  body  politic  and  the  human  body  are 
in  some  respects  alike.  If  any  part  becomes 
atrophied  or  vice  versa  and  circulation  is 
not  equal,  suffering  is  bound  to  come..  Al- 
though I  am  a  loyal  Republican,  I  believe 
the  Republican  party  has  made  a  terrible 
blunder,  either  through  ignorance  or  self- 
ishness of  its  men  in  office  in  allowing  the 
once  grand  and  numerous  American  mer- 
chant shipping  to  be  swept  from  the  face  of 
the  seas  and  on  a  parallel  with  the  ships, 
they  have  committed  just  such  a  terrible 
blunder  in  not  putting  an  export  bounty  on 
wheat.  The  two  are  about  the  only  indus- 
tries that  have  not  been  helped  by  the  tar- 
iff; in  fact,  the  tariff  has  swept  the  ships 
out  of  existence  and  reduced  the  American 
wheat  raiser  to  abject  slavery  and  acute 
mental  suffering  in  many  instances,  for  he 
has  seen  his  farm  slip  from  his  own  and  his 
posterity's  hands  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  hard-working  classes  of  Europe.  The 
pioneer  merchant  has  shared  the  same  fate 
in  many  instances,  and  all  this  has  happened 
on  the  most  fertile  soil  the  world  knows. 

ENGLAND  HAS  GOT  IT  BACK 

After  the  Civil  War  England  had  to  pay 
the  United  States  $15,000,000  for  allowing 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  7 

the  Alabama  to  fit  out;  this  was  for  ships 
that  were  of  no  value  to  us,  but  since  that 
time  the  people  of  America  have  allowed 
England  to  make  back  that  sum  a  hundred 
times  over  by  carrying  nearly  all  our  for- 
eign merchandise,  all  because  no  wise 
statesman  saw  fit  to  inaugurate  a  bounty  to 
keep  our  own  merchant  marine  in  exist- 
ence. We  have  been  used  to  hearing  the  ex- 
pression. What  of  it?  If  they  can  do  it 
cheaper  than  us,  let  them  do  it.  Why  tax 
others  to  do  it? 

But  does  this  condition  not  exist  ?  The  mer- 
chant marine  is  taxed  out  of  existence  and 
the  American  farmer  to  slavery  on  account 
of  the  tariff  If  the  party  will  grant  a 
bounty  to  ships  and  wheat  commensurate 
with  the  tariff  protection  to  our  other  in- 
dustries, then  all  classes  shall  be  protected 
equally  and  the  meaning  of  our  Constitu- 
tion will  have  been  abided  by.  The  fitting 
out  of  those  merchant  ships  will  take  an  im- 
mense amount  of  our  products  from  the 
farm  and  range  and  much  other  trade  that 
we  do  not  get  now  The  land  owner  will 
then,  through  prosperity  that  would  come 
of  that  needed  bounty,  improve  the  condi- 
tion of  his  land  and  home  to  such  an  extent 
that  a  trade  of  at  least  $500,000,000  a  year 
will  be  created  for  our  own  people. 

The  principle  followed  in  the  past  has 


8  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

been  sufficient  for  the  day  is  the  evil  there- 
of, whereas  it  ought  to  be  the  God-given  in- 
junction :  "Cast  thy  bread  upon  the  waters 
and  thou  shalt  find  it  after  many  days/' 

THOMAS  WITHYCOMBE. 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  9 

Gentlemen,  how  in  the  world  can  we  make 
free  ships  pay?  We  had  the  ships  after  the 
war  and  by  thousands  they  rotted  at  their 
anchors.  If  we  had  them,  what  good  would 
free  ships  do  us?  They  would  do  us  no 
good  whatever. 

Representative  Humphrey — We  have  sev- 
eral on  the  Sound  now  tied  up. 

Mr  Withycombe — I  have  had  experience. 
If  a  man  would  give  me  a  thousand-ton  ship 
today  as  a  free  gift  and  tell  me  to  operate 
her  in  the  foreign  merchant  marine  under 
the  American  flag,  I  would  decline  to  take 
her.  I  would  not  have  her  except  to  sell  her 
or  transfer  her  to  the  coasting  business.  If 
I  transferred  her  to  the  coasting  trade  I 
would  make  money.  I  know  that  to  be  a 
fact. 

Recess. 

President  Roosevelt  saw  the  need  of  help- 
ing the  American  farmer  and  he  took  up 
the  work  of  correcting  some  of  the  means 
whereby  the  farmer  was  being  unfairly  ex- 
ploited ;  one  was  fair  treatment  by  the  rail- 
roads; also  he  forced  the  meat  packers  or 
as  it  was  then  known  the  Beef  Trust,  to  pay 
the  producers  of  cattle  more  nearly  their 
share  of  the  worth  of  the  cattle  they  raised, 
and  that  was  the  first  wave  of  real  prosper- 
ity that  spread  out  over  this  great  country. 
Before  Mr.  Roosevelt  did  that,  the  banks 
were  becoming  insolvent  in  the  best  farm- 


10  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

ing  districts.  Immediately  when  the  stock 
raisers  got  a  fair  price  for  their  animals 
improved  farms  jumped  from  $50  and  $100 
per  acre  up  to  $150  and  $200  per  acre,  the 
banks  became  full  of  money  and  the  middle 
west  became  very  prosperous  and  at  pres- 
ent after  15  years  of  such  prosperity  the 
best  farms  in  the  middle  west  are  worth 
$400  per  acre.  But  at  the  same  time  lands 
further  east  which  had  been  drained  of 
their  fertility  in  the  years  previous  to  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  help  are  still  depleted  and  al- 
most worthless.  Under  our  existing  condi- 
tions, it  is  only  the  lands  containing  virgin 
fertility  that  have  become  high  priced. 

What  is  necessary  for  our  national  pros- 
perity is  to  extend  the  system  of  protection 
to  all  our  raw  materials  so  that  a  fair  mar- 
gin of  profit  will  remain  to  the  grower  with 
which  he  can  build  up  the  fertility  of  those 
exhausted  lands.  I  will  now  insert  a  copy 
of  another  letter  I  read  before  President 
Roosevelt's  Country  Commission,  of  which 
Dr  Bailey  was  the  chairman 

To  the  Honorable  Country  Commission 

1906) 

One  of  the  greatest  crimes  in  the  history 
of  the  world  has  been  committed  against 
the  American  farmer 

This  is  a  severe  arraignment,  but  a  great 
wrong  needs  it.  Secretary  of  Agriculture 
Wilson   has   made   a   statement   that   the 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  ll 

American  farmers,  who  constitute  only  35 
per  cent  of  our  population  or  about  25  mil- 
lion of  souls,  have  produced  in  the  last  10 
years  wealth  equal  to  one-half  of  the  total 
wealth  of  our  great  commonwealth's  pro- 
duction in  three  centuries.  Yet  the  Ameri- 
can farmer  has  not  been  allowed  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  his  labor. 

The  products  of  his  farm  have  been  taken 
by  the  speculator,  railroad  and  other  cor- 
porations to  become  wealthy  upon,  and  he 
has  been  allowed  to  suffer  most  acutely. 
His  crops  and  herds  have  been  filched  out 
of  his  hands,  and  he  has  not  been  allowed 
to  have  anything  near  his  share  of  its 
worth  to  our  great  nation. 

But  God  in  His  providence  has  raised  up 
for  us  President  Roosevelt,  who  is  thor- 
oughly imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and 
who  is  working  hard  to  lift  up  the  op- 
pressed and  to  bind  up  the  broken  hearted. 

One  of  the  most  cruel  measures  enacted 
against  the  American  farmer  is  to  force 
him  to  pay  for  protected  labor,  machinery, 
in  fact,  everything  he  makes  use  of,  and 
force  him  to  pay  for  it  with  the  price  of  a 
free  trade  bushel  of  wheat.  The  American 
merchant  marine  has  been  wiped  out  of  ex- 
istence from  the  same  conditions.  This 
seems  to  any  reasonable  person  an  act  of 
tyranny  that  so  far  exceeds  the  cruelty  of 
the  Egyptians  to  the  children  of  Israel 
when  they  forced   them   to  make  bricks 


12  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

without  straw,  that  the  latter  wrong  sinks 
into  insignificance  when  arrayed  alongside 
the  first  mentioned,  for  the  American  farm- 
er could  soon  devise  a  way  to  make  bricks 
without  straw,  but  he  has  found  it  impossi- 
ble to  pay  for  protected  labor  and  buy  pro- 
tected everything  with  the  money  received 
for  a  free  trade  bushel  of  wheat.  Experi- 
ence again  and  again  has  taught  us  that 
protection  is  our  watchword.  We  saw  how 
free  wool  was  nearly  the  entire  destruction 
of  our  sheep  industry.  Free  cattle  made 
bankrupt  thousands  of  cattlemen.  Under 
the  McKinley  law  in  1890  with  a  duty  of  $10 
per  head  the  cattle  business  flourished,  but 
in  1894  when  the  tariff  was  reduced  to  20 
per  cent  ad  valorem.  Representative  Noo- 
nan  of  Texas  before  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  of  the  54th  Congress,  January 
5th,  1897,  said  the  present  tariff  has  prac- 
tically placed  horses,  cattle,  sheep  and  goats 
on  the  free  list,  and  it  has  resulted  in  great 
loss  to  the  breeders  of  stock,  many  of  v^^hom 
have  been  bankrupted.  Numerous  ranches 
have  been  abandoned  or  have  gone  into  de- 
cay and  milhons  of  acres  of  good  grazing 
lands  are  unused  and  the  grass  wasted  be- 
cause the  business  does  not  justify  stock- 
men in  raising  animals  for  market  at  pres- 
ent rates.  As  a  consequence  all  their  indus- 
tries are  languishing  from  the  effects  of 
Mexican  competition.  Nearly  half  a  million 
of  cattle  have  been  imported  from  Mexico 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  13 

into  the  United  States  since  the  repeal  of 
the  McKinley  law. 

Placing  hides  on  the  free  list  in  1872 
caused  a  great  hardship  to  the  stockmen 
without  any  benefit  to  the  leather  user. 

On  January  1st  of  this  year  our  farm  ani- 
mals were  valued  at  $3,675,389,442  as  com- 
pared with  a  valuation  of  $1,655,414,612  on 
January  1st,  1897,  the  last  year  of  the  Gor- 
man-Wilson tariff. 

This  is  achieved  with  only  partial  protec- 
tion of  the  farmer.  If  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment will  protect  the  farmer's  bushel  of 
wheat  equally  with  the  protection  granted 
the  other  industries,  then  the  farmer  will 
be  relieved  of  one  of  the  worst  oppressions 
ever  imposed  on  a  civilized  race  of  people. 
I  write  this  not  in  the  spirit  of  selfishness, 
for  I  raise  no  wheat  to  sell.  I  raise  products 
that  are  protected  and  which  bring  a  good 
price,  but  I  know  that  wheat  is  the  unit  of 
value  of  every  article  raised  on  the  farm 
to  a  certain  extent,  and  if  an  export  bounty 
of  25  cents  per  bushel  were  paid  the  farmer 
for  every  bushel  of  wheat  exported  and  a 
commission  appointed  to  see  that  the  farm- 
er, and  not  the  shipper,  received  that 
bounty,  then  the  products  of  the  farm  would 
be  increased  in  value  to  the  amount  of  25 
per  cent,  or  in  round  numbers  our  wheat 
would  be  worth  $150,000,000  more  than  at 
present,  our  corn  $300,000,000;  hay  $150,- 
000,000  oats  $75,000,000;  potatoes  $30,000,- 


14  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

000;  barley  $12,000,000,  or  in  all  on  these 
crops  $717,000,000.  This  money  would  mean 
a  clear  profit  to  the  American  farmer  which 
he  would  have  to  spend  in  trade,  building 
roads,  churches,  schools  and  beautifying 
our  great  and  glorious  country.  This  sum 
would  mean  at  least  three  bilHons  of  dollars 
of  internal  trade  for  our  own  people  more 
than  they  get  at  present.  Our  cities  are  at 
present  to  a  very  great  extent  being  built 
at  the  expense  of  the  country.  Then  our 
cities  would  grow  indescribably  beautiful 
as  the  cause  of  natural  wealth  flowing  from 
the  country  into  them. 

Our  total  foreign  trade  in  exports  for 
1905: 

$523,000,000  to  England, 

$194,000,000  to  Germany, 

$141,000,000  to  Canada, 

$  76,000,000  to  France, 

$  53,000,000  to  China. 

$  73,000,000  to  Netherlands, 

$  52,000,000  to  Japan, 

$  46,000,000  to  Mexico,  or  $1,148,000,000. 

Our  imports  were : 
$176,000,000  from  England, 
$118,000,000  from  Germany, 
$  62,000,000  from  Canada, 
$  90,000,000  from  France, 
$100,000,000  from  Brazil, 
$  86,000,000  from  Cuba,  a  total  of  $632,- 
000,000,  or  a  total  of  $2,112,000,000. 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  15. 

We  export  only  200,000,000  bushels  of 
wheat,  which  at  25  cents  export  bounty 
would  only  cost  the  Federal  Government 
$50,000,000,  or  just  one-third  of  the  amount 
paid  in  pensions  to  the  war  veterans.  Yet 
it  would  accrue  an  addition  of  $3,000,000,000 
of  trade  to  our  own  people,  a  sum  more  than 
equal  to  the  amount  of  all  our  foreign  im- 
port and  export  trade. 

We  owe  it  to  our  country's  welfare  to  see 
that  this  just  relief  is  granted  the  American 
farmer,  as  under  present  conditions  we  are 
reducing  our  country  to  a  barren  waste  as 
fast  as  we  possibly  can,  as  there  are  whole 
counties  of  abandoned  farms  in  some  of  our 
once  best  agricultural  states,  but  under  the 
fostering  care  and  protection  our  lands 
would  receive,  if  the  needed  relief  was 
granted  the  farmer,  our  lands  would  be  in- 
creased in  value  threefold,  which  would 
mean  added  wealth  to  our  nation  that  would 
reach  into  several  billions  of  dollars. 

In  comparing  values  here  and  in  England 
we  may  get  a  good  idea.  In  the  city  of  New 
York  land  value  that  is  worth  $1000  a  foot 
frontage,  the  same  kind  of  property  in  the 
city  of  London  is  only  worth  $400  per  foot 
frontage.  Agricultural  land  that  here  is 
worth  $50  per  acre,  in  England  is  worth 
$150  per  acre. 

The  English  farmer  gets  $1.00  for  a 
bushel  of  wheat.  The  English  baker  retails 
that  bushel  of  wheat  in  the  form  of  bread 


16  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

to  the  consumer  for  $1.50.  The  American 
farmer  gets  70  cents  for  his  bushel  of 
wheat;  the  American  baker  retails  that 
bushel  of  wheat  in  the  form  of  bread  for 
$3.00.  Between  the  English  farmer's  price 
and  the  consumer  of  the  bread  there  is 
50  cents  per  bushel.  Between  the  American 
farmer's  price  and  the  consumer  of  the 
bread  there  is  $2.30  per  bushel.  This  dif- 
ference to  a  certain  extent  corresponds  to 
the  inequality  of  the  land  values  in  city  and 
country  in  the  two  countries. 

England's  wealth  is  in  her  lands.  She 
sends  her  ships  to  the  remotest  corners  of 
the  earth  for  all  the  fertilizer  she  can  pro- 
cure. We  are  forcing  our  farmers  in  a 
great  measure  to  reduce  our  lands  to  pov- 
erty, and  it  behooves  us  to  see  that  this 
wasteful  method  stops  before  it  is  too  late, 
or  before  we  reach  the  200,000,000  popula- 
tion mark  we  may  be  confronted  with  fam- 
ine. Our  lands  should  be  owned  by  intelli- 
gent and  scientific  agriculturists  and  not 
mere  tillers  of  the  soil.  Of  the  thousands 
of  young  men  who  are  educated  in  our 
Agricultural  Colleges  a  very  small  per  cent 
ever  return  to  the  farm ;  the  inducements  of- 
fered elsewhere  are  better.  With  an  export 
bounty  of  25  cents  per  bushel  on  wheat  this 
would  change.  I  have  traveled  all  over  the 
world  and  one  of  the  most  beautiful  sights 
I  have  seen  is  in  the  city  of  Portland — to 
see  the  Jewish  people  riding  in  the  finest 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  17 

carriages,  dressed  in  the  most  costly  cloth- 
ing and  wearing  the  richest  furs  and  jewel- 
ry, living  in  the  finest  houses  and  taking  the 
most  prominent  places  in  finance  and  muni- 
cipal government  of  the  city.  This  is  as  it 
should  be,  for  we  got  the  best  things  we 
ever  got  from  the  Jews — ^namely,  Christ  and 
the  Bible.  And  the  fact  that  they  can  rise 
to  their  opportunities  is  a  proof  of  the  lib- 
erty granted  to  American  citizenship  inde- 
pendent of  nationality. 

One  of  the  saddest  sights  I  have  beheld  is 
to  see  the  grand  old  pioneers  who  braved 
hardships  to  come  here  and  who  hewed  out 
fine  homes  by  hard  work  and  industry. 
Those  fine  people,  a  race  typical  of  Western 
America  only,  those  uncles  and  aunties  of 
pioneer  times,  whose  latchstrings  were  al- 
ways out,  the  passing  of  whom  will  leave 
ne  plus  ultra.  When  foreign  competition 
drove  the  bushel  of  wheat  so  low  in  price,  it 
vitiated  their  very  existence,  drove  them 
from  their  homes  and  their  children  from 
their  heritage.  In  many  instances  the  hired 
man  owns  the  farm. 

The  Eastern  manufacturing  centers  have 
taken  from  the  agricultural  districts  of  the 
United  States  an  unjust  proportion  of 
wealth,  and  all  classes  have  suffered  in  the 
agricultural  districts  with  the  farmer.  The 
East  owes  the  West  millions  of  dollars.  An 
export  bounty  of  25  cents  on  a  bushel  of 
wheat  will  bring  about  the  only  equitable 


18  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

adjustment.  The  farmers  of  the  Middle 
West  have  organized  a  Society  in  Equity  to 
force  wheat  to  one  dollar.  This  is  illegal  ac- 
cording to  Federal  laws.  The  Federal  Gov- 
ernment should  come  to  the  farmers'  aid. 
THOMAS  WITHYCOMBE. 

The  following  are  letters  I  received  from 
gentlemen  to  whom  I  sent  this  communica- 
tion to  ask  their  opinions:  First  one  from 
late  Honorable  J.  Gaston,  and  is  as  follows: 

Aug.  17th,  1906. 
Mr.  Thos.  Withycombe, 
Hamilton  Bldg., 
Portland. 

My  Dear  Sir: 

I  have  read  with  great  interest  and  atten- 
tion your  very  able  paper  on  the  value  and 
importance  of  an  export  duty  on  wheat,  and 
now  herewith  return  the  same  with  my 
thanks  for  giving  me  the  pleasure  of  read- 
ing this  expression  of  your  views. 

It  seems  to  me  very  important  that  you 
bring  this  matter  before  the  people  for  dis- 
cussion by  either  publishing  it  in  the  Daily 
and  Weekly  Oregonian,  or  printing  it  in 
pamphlet  form  for  general  distribution 
among  intelligent  farmers.  These  reforms 
move  slowly,  and  won't  move  at  all  without 
public  opinion  to  push  them. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  Gaston. 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  19 

Following  is  a  letter  received  from  the 
late  Honorable  Judge  T.  G.  Hailey: 

State  of  Oregon  Supreme  Court, 
Salem,  August  31st,  1906. 

Mr.  Thos.  Withycombe, 
Room  8,  Hamilton  Bldg., 
Portland,  Oregon. 

Dear  Mr.  Withycombe : 

Enclosed  herewith  I  return  your  article 
in  behalf  of  the  wheat  grower,  which  I  have 
read  with  interest  and  which  contains  much 
of  value,  but  I  can  hardly  agree  with  you 
upon  your  remedy  for  farmers'  ills..  I  think 
there  are  other  means  by  which  the  farmer 
can  receive  benefits  than  giving  him  a 
bounty  from  the  government  The  publica- 
tion, however,  of  your  article  would  doubt- 
less awaken  the  interest  of  many  people 
who  have  not  thought  of  the  matter,  and  it 
is  only  by  litigation  of  such  matters  that 
good  results  can  be  obtained,  and  I  think  it 
would  be  well  for  you  to  give  the  matter 
some  publicity  as  it  might  result  in  good  to 
the  farmer  and  good  to  the  farmer  means 
good  to  everybody     *     *     * 

Yours  truly, 

T.  J.  Hailey. 

In  April,  1908,  the  Oregonian  printed  the 
following  letter: 


20  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

Portland,  Oregon,  April  9th,  1908. 
To  the  Editor: 

The  Oregonian  in  many  respects  stands 
pre-eminently  in  the  advance  of  modern 
newspapers,  but  in  some  things  I  believe  it 
to  be  grossly  in  error;  in  this  morning's  edi- 
torial it  says  wheat  has  dropped  two  cents 
in  Chicago,  and  says.  Oh  where,  oh  where  is 
the  American  Society  of  Equity,  etc.  A  say- 
ing much  endorsed  is,  "The  voice  of  the 
people  is  the  voice  of  God,"  and  the  Ameri- 
can farmer  is  asking  relief;  surely  he  needs 
it ;  under  our  present  system  we  are  slowly 
and  surely  reducing  our  great  and  glorious 
country  to  a  state  of  exhaustion  and  fam- 
ine, and  it  behooves  our  statesmen  to  sit  up 
and  take  notice  before  it  is  too  late.  Only 
a  short  time  ago  the  Oregonian  printed  a 
letter  from  a  gentleman  who  had  lately  re- 
turned from  the  East,  saying  farms  were 
so  exhausted  in  the  once  best  districts  that 
they  were  being  practically  abandoned. 
Protection  is  America's  Banner  of  Onward 
and  Upward  progress.  And  non-protection 
is  the  retrograde  that  brings  her  to  a  point 
of  degeneracy.  The  American  people  live 
on  a  higher  plane  than  the  balance  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth  and  protection  is  the 
only  thing  that  makes  that  possible,  but  in 
justness  and  righteousness  of  Christian 
Equity  all  classes  ought  to  be  treated  equal- 
ly ;  but  the  American  merchant  marine  has 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  21 

been  wiped  out  of  existence  because  our 
statesmen  failed  to  protect  it  and  American 
ship  owners  have  become  citizens  of  France 
and  are  building  up  the  French  merchant 
marine  under  the  protection  of  the  French 
ship  subsidy.  Twenty  years  ago  only  an 
occasional  French  ship  came  here,  all  were 
British  bottoms.  Several  times  this  winter 
the  majority  of  the  ships  en  route  and  here 
were  flying  the  French  flag  and  instead  of 
breaking  up  the  French  nation  they  have 
become  the  bankers  of  the  world.  If  ships 
and  agriculture  were  to  receive  the  same 
protection  that  iron  and  steel  does,  the 
wealth  of  our  great  nation  would  be  in- 
creased bilHons  of  dollars  and  the  farmer 
instead  of  being  scoffed  at,  a  shrivelled  so- 
cially, shunned  creature,  would  expand  into 
a  cultured  and  much  sought  after  compan- 
ion. It  would  bring  us  beautiful  cities  and 
rural  districts  and  instead  of  exhausting 
our  wealth  would  make  it  more  productive. 
When  we  were  in  the  throes  of  a  panic  in 
the  nineties  through  the  low  price  of  farm 
products,  the  Hawaiian  Islands  under  the 
blessings  of  reciprocity  with  the  United 
States  and  consequently  having  the  benefit 
of  protected  sugar,  sugar  stock  was  selling 
300  above  par  and  the  Hawaiians  were  able 
to  place  75  to  100  dollars'  worth  of  our  fer- 
tilizers on  one  acre  of  land  at  one  appHca- 
tion,  at  the  same  time  the  American  farmer 
could  not  afford  to  use  15c  worth. 


22  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

To  explain  my  views  fully  would  take  up 
too  much  space  in  your  valuable  paper  and 
tire  your  readers,  but  I  will  say  in  conclu- 
sion, for  years  my  heart  has  longed  to  see 
the  American  farmer  and  his  noble  wife 
and  family  put  on  a  plane  with  the  rest  of 
this  great  nation.  Putting  on  a  high  pro- 
tected tariff  without  putting  on  a  gradu- 
ated income  tax  is  like  building  a  steam 
engine  without  a  safety  valve,  and  when- 
ever I  read  of  Mr.  Carnegie^s  and  J.  D. 
Rockefeller's  magnificent  gifts,  I  want  to 
know  why  they  are  allowed  to  bestow  this 
wealth  according  to  their  own  whims  which 
rightly  belongs  to  the  American  people  at 
large. 

Thomas  Withycombe. 
Feb.  20th,  1920. 

The  present  administration  has  succeeded 
in  having  the  income  tax  instituted,  and 
that  is  high  above  every  other  measure  in- 
augurated by  the  administration.  The  late 
beloved  Theodore  Roosevelt  tried  his  level 
best  to  get  the  income  tax  inaugurated  but 
failed.  William  Jennings  Bryan  said  Mr. 
Roosevelt  was  stealing  his  thunder,  but  the 
difference  between  Mr.  Bryan's  income  tax 
and  Theodore  Roosevelt's  income  tax  was 
very  wide.  If  Mr.  Bryan  had  been  elected 
with  his  free  trade  schemes  there  would 
have  been  no  incomes  to  tax. 

Fifty  years  ago  Senator  Hatch  of  New 
England  saw  agriculture  was  declining,  and 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  23 

he  succeeded  in  getting  the  Hatch  Fund 
started  for  Schools  of  Agriculture,  and  to- 
day we  have  the  finest  and  most  elaborate 
Agricultural  Colleges  in  the  world,  and  yet 
agriculture  has  been  steadily  declining  and 
our  country  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi is  practically  exhausted,  and  the 
high  protection  of  manufactures  for  the 
cities  as  against  practically  free  trade  for 
our  products  of  the  farm  has  so  concen- 
trated our  wealth  in  the  cities  that  the  city 
of  New  York  alone  has  the  same  assessed 
value  as  the  seven  Western  States  of  Ore- 
gon, Washington,  Idaho,  Montana,  Utah, 
Colorado  and  California. 

At  the  same  time  in  the  State  of  New 
York  are  thousands  of  beautiful  farms 
abandoned,  and  thousands  can  be  bought 
for  less  than  half  of  what  the  buildings  cost 
and  that  condition  exists  even  up  to  the 
Mississippi  River.  The  farmers  always  were 
loyal  to  the  Republican  party,  because  it  is 
the  only  party  that  has  brought  them  any 
degree  of  prosperity.  Besides  our  fine  Agri- 
cultural Colleges,  the  Grange,  Farmer's 
Union,  American  Society  in  Equity  and  sev- 
eral other  organizations  have  attempted  to 
lift  our  rural  life  and  have  been  completely 
baffled.  When  the  Grange  first  started 
when  I  was  just  out  of  my  teens,  in  1871, 
they  undertook  to  take  into  their  hands  the 
selling  direct  to  the  consumer  and  buying 
direct  from  the  wholesaler,  and  they  forced 


24  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

bankruptcy  on  their  best  friends,  the  store- 
keeper and  his  family,  who  had  even  shared 
their  hardships  with  them,  and  were  made 
the  goat;  but  they  were  soon  glad  to  come 
back  to  the  storekeeper  and  ask  him  to  set 
things  again  on  a  trade  basis,  and  the 
Grange  settled  down  to  a  quiet,  ethical  and 
social  institution.  Then  the  American  So- 
ciety of  Equity  sprang  up  and  undertook  to 
deal  direct  to  the  consumer  and  buy  direct 
from  wholesaler,  but  they  ran  up  against 
the  same  snag  and  were  glad  to  ask  the  old 
line  business  men  to  pull  their  chestnuts  out 
of  the  fire  for  them.  Lately  another  lot  of 
agitators  have  persuaded  the  farmers  to 
form  a  political  party  called  the  Non-Parti- 
san League  to  take  over  all  business  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  regular  dealer,  and  already 
we  are  hearing  the  farmer  say  they  have 
found  out  that  they  have  jumped  from  the 
frying  pan  into  the  fire.  I  cannot  help 
thinking  if  we  had  such  statesmen  as  our 
great  George  Washington  or  Abraham 
Lincoln  contemporary  with  such  a  condi- 
tion they  would  have  set  our  national  eco- 
nomic condition  in  order.  One  thing  we 
know  our  beloved  late  Theodore  Roosevelt 
started  to  do  the  thing  and  got  all  the  in- 
formation together  ready  to  take  up  the 
question  when  he  was  superseded  by  a 
party  who  was  diametrically  opposed  to  his 
efforts.  I  was  pleased  to  see  an  article 
printed  in  one  of  our  daily  papers  from  a 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  25 

speech  uttered  by  Major  Leonard  Wood, 
who  was  always  an  admirer  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt  and  his  ideals,  as  follows,  in  the 
Oregonian :  Farm  Decline  Menaces.  Wood 
Advocated  Protection  to  Agriculture.  State- 
ment Declared  Most  Candid  Attitude  Any 
Presidential  Candidate  Ever  Took.  Chi- 
cago, III,  Feb.  17.— (Special.) — The  need  of 
measures  destined  to  correct  the  decline  of 
agriculture  in  the  United  States  were  em- 
phasized today  in  a  statement  by  Major 
General  Wood,  candidate  for  presidential 
nominee  on  the  Republican  ticket.  Political 
leaders  who  read  Major  General  Wood's 
statement  this  afternoon  pronounced  it  the 
most  far-reaching  and  candid  attitude  on 
agricultural  problems  that  any  candidate 
for  president  has  yet  adopted. 

The  decline  in  agriculture  is  one  of  the 
greatest  dangers  to  our  civilization,  Major 
General  Wood  declared.  The  farmer  has  a 
right  to  expect  from  every  national  admin- 
istration the  biggest  sort  of  co-operation 
and  encouragement.  He  makes  up  a  third 
of  our  entire  population  and  is  the  back- 
bone of  the  nation.  He  must  be  given  a 
square  deal  and  I  propose  to  see  he  gets 
it  if  ever  it  lies  within  my  power  to  act  in 
his  behalf. 

Salient  points  in  Major  General  Wood's 
statement  were: 

"The  farmer  sacrificed  much  during  the 
war.    We  owe  him  a  debt  of  gratitude. 


26  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

"Education  for  farm  children  should  be 
as  easily  accessible  and  on  as  high  a  plane 
as  that  of  city  children. 

"We  must  give  the  rural  districts  good 
roads. 

"There  must  be  a  department  of  agricul- 
ture in  full  and  intelligent  co-operation  with 
the  farmer  and  the  great  farm  organiza- 
tions. 

"Hoarding  of  food  supplies  should  be 
rigorously  suppressed. 

"Secure  provision  should  be  made  to  en- 
able the  farmers  to  get  adequate  credit  to 
extend  farming  interests." 

William  Jennings  Bryan  in  describing 
what  the  Democratic  platform  would  stand 
for  said :  "1  think  it  safe  to  say  the  party 
will  declare  against  a  return  to  the  protec- 
tive tariff.  This  is  very  misleading.  We 
know  the  product  of  the  farms  are  free,  that 
is,  wheat,  oats,  barley,  corn,  beef,  butter, 
eggs,  wool  but  there  is  a  35  per  cent  import 
duty  on  manufactures.  This  is  a  rank  in- 
justice to  the  American  f  armer.'^ 

I  will  insert  another  letter  of  mine  pub- 
lished in  the  Oregonian. 

Portland  Ore.  April  17th,  1908. 

To  the  Editor: 

In  this  morning's  Oregonian  in  an  edi- 
torial citing  the  low  rates  granted  Amer- 
ican shippers  in  foreign  ships,  it  certainly 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  27 

is  astonishing,  but  that  does  not  advance 
the  correct  position  for  America  to  take.  As 
long  as  our  best  customer,  Great  Britain, 
who  takes  from  500  million  to  nearly  one 
billion  dollars'  worth  of  our  produce,  and 
from  whom  we  take  less  than  200  million 
dollars'  worth  annually  was  carrying  the 
goods,  it  helped  make  the  principles  of  reci- 
procity possible  between  the  two  countries, 
but  now  under  the  subsidy  the  French  Gov- 
ernment is  giving  her  merchant  marine,  a 
large  part  of  our  carrying  trade  goes  to  a 
country  that  only  takes  about  80  million 
dollars'  worth  of  our  produce  and  of  whom, 
we  take  100  million  dollars;  the  trade  bal- 
ance is  greatly  augmented  in  France's  fa- 
vor. And  because  the  foreign  merchant 
man  carry  freight  from  Portland  to  China 
75  cents  per  ton  cheaper  than  the  American 
ships  can  carry  it  to  San  Francisco  from 
Portland  does  not  signify  that  we  ought  to 
let  the  foreigner  have  it,  unless  he  was 
granting  us  some  return  reciprocity.  The 
Oregonian  has  had  a  little  experience  on 
that  line.  The  Daily  Journal  has  been  sold 
on  the  streets  at  two  cents  per  copy,  which 
every  one  believes  to  be  at  a  loss  under  the 
principles  of  high  protection.  The  leading 
daily  papers  in  the  city  of  London,  Eng- 
land, are  now  sold  for  one  cent  per  copy  on 
the  street.  Would  the  Oregonian  thrive 
brought  into  competition?  No,  not  any 
more  than  the  American  merchant   ship 


28  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

ov/ner  has  been  able  to  compete  with  the 
freight  of  free  trade  and  subsidy  fed  ships. 
The  idea  of  allowing  America  to  have  her 
ships  built  in  foreign  countries  is  unpatri- 
otic. We  have  the  men  and  the  material 
and  we  ought  to  do  the  work  ourselves. 

The  pound  loaf  of  bread  is  sold  in  Eng- 
land after  the  wheat  has  been  transported 
from  Portland,  Oregon,  there,  at  the  low 
price  of  214  cents  per  pound  loaf.  This  is 
under  free  trade.  Whereas  the  pound  loaf 
of  bread  in  the  city  of  Portland  is  sold  for 
5  cents — this  is  under  protected  tariff — but 
the  scale  of  civilization  in  America  is  pro- 
portionately 100  per  cent  higher  than  it  is 
in  England,  and  protection  is  the  cause  of 
it.  Do  we  want  to  retrograde?  God  forbid 
— let  us  go  higher, 

Thomas  Withycomuo. 

Another  letter  I  sent  to  the  Evening  Tele- 
gram might  be  of  interest  to  my  readers. 

Portland,  Oregon,  Jan.  10.  1919. 

The  problem  of  placing  our  returned  sol- 
diers and  sailors  in  profitable  occupation  is 
now  of  great  interest  to  every  one,  and  in 
this  line  I  realize  there  is  a  great  work  to  be 
done.  We  must  advance ;  we  cannot  go  back 
to  the  old  pre-war  conditions  and  be  safe. 

It  is  time  for  every  true  American  citizen 
to  give  up  working  mainly  for  self  and 
selfish  interest  and  to  see  to  the  well-being 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  29 

of  his  neighbor.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  went 
to  school  in  France  and  many  times  have 
I  inscribed  my  name  on  beautiful  crumbling 
Grecian  columns  covered  with  moss  and 
ivy,  the  relics  of  once  beautiful  mansions 
owned  by  the  wealthy  patrician  class.  But 
the  peasant  class  became  so  abjectly  poor 
and  without  homes  that  the  French  Revolu- 
tion broke  forth  with  an  awful  fury,  and 
these  wealthy  land  owners  were  slain  with 
the  guillotine,  the  land  became  divided  in 
small  holdings  and  the  largest  portion  of 
France  became  tillers  of  the  soil  or  agricul- 
turists and  ever  since  that  abandonment  of 
the  law  of  primogenitor  caused  by  the  revo- 
lution the  land  has  been  subdivided  into 
very  small  holdings  and  the  very  tenacious 
way  the  French  people  fought  for  France 
during  this  war  is  partly  because  nearly 
every  soldier  was  interested  in  a  small  piece 
of  land  that  was  his  own  home.  We  hear 
of  people  wanting  to  place  our  returned  sol- 
diers on  the  land  either  on  reclaimed  land 
by  irrigation  or  cleared  off  stump  land  or 
large  holdings  bought  by  the  government 
and  parcelled  out  to  the  returned  soldiers 
and  sailors 

But  here  is  a  great  problem  to  solve :  The 
people  already  on  the  land  are  not  nearly 
as  prosperous  as  they  should  be,  and  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Hatch  Bill  was 
passed  about  45  years  ago  with  a  view  of 
improving  the  condition  of  our  farmers,  the 


30  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

land  has  steadily  become  depleted  until 
more  than  20  million  acres  of  lands  are 
abandoned  and  beautiful  houses  and  farm 
buildings  are  going  into  decay  with  no 
other  occupants  than  the  rats  and  mice. 

I  will  give  a  few  illustrations  of  condi- 
tions as  they  have  come  to  my  notice.  A 
neighbor  of  mine  who  came  from  Ithaca, 
New  York,  several  years  ago,  went  back  a 
few  years  ago  on  a  visit.  I  questioned  him 
regarding  conditions  in  the  country  around 
there.  He  said  he  had  a  cousin  who  owned 
a  100-acre  farm  and  said  when  he  first  left 
Ithica  it  was  worth  $100  per  acre,  but  when 
he  returned  on  a  visit  he  was  trying  to  sell 
it  at  $8.00  per  acre  and  could  not.  He  said 
he  went  down  to  Lake  Cayuga  to  visit  a 
cousin  who  owned  a  fine  200-acre  farm.  He 
said  his  cousin  told  him  he  used  to  raise  the 
finest  of  crops  and  lots  of  cattle  and  horses 
on  his  farm;  that  he  had  tried  to  build  up 
the  fertility  of  his  land ;  had  spent  $30  per 
acre  for  fertilizers  but  the  prices  he  realized 
for  his  produce  would  not  pay  for  artificial 
fertilizers  so  he  had  to  give  up  farming  his 
land  and  all  he  could  do  was  to  graze  a  few 
sheep  on  his  once  fertile  200-acre  farm. 

Another  friend  of  mine  went  back  on  a 
visit  to  his  old  home  in  Maine,  and  it  was 
occupied  by  his  brother.  He  had  just  had 
bad  luck  and  lost  his  house  by  fire,  and  he 
asked  him  when  he  was  going  to  build  a 
new  house.    He  said  he  would  not  build  a 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  31 

new  house  because  he  could  buy  the  adjoin- 
ing farm  with  a  good  house  on  it  and  get 
the  farm  buildings  and  all  for  half  what  it 
would  cost  to  build  a  new  house. 

Another  friend  of  mine  had  sold  his  farm 
in  Washington  county,  Oregon,  and  took  it 
into  his  head  to  go  back  East  and  look  over 
the  abandoned  farm  situation.  He  was  so 
well  impressed  with  a  beautiful  farm  in 
New  York  State  and  the  low  price  he  could 
buy  it  for  that  he  bought  it  and  ordered  his 
things  shipped  out  from  Oregon,  but  in  the 
meantime  while  waiting  for  his  things  to 
arrive  he  found  out  the  conditions  of  the 
adjoining  farms.  He  never  unloaded  his 
things  but  had  them  shipped  back  to  Ore- 
gon and  his  farm  stands  there  without  an 
occupant. 

I  write  these  items  into  this  article  to  il- 
lustrate what  I  want  to  convey  to  the  minds 
.  of  my  readers.  I  find  out  whenever  I  speak 
on  this  subject  my  hearers  let  their  minds 
go  to  purely  local  conditions  and  think  of 
the  people  who  are  living  on  the  most  fav- 
ored spots  of  production.  We  know  of  wheat 
raisers  in  Eastern  Oregon  and  Eastern 
Washington's  best  sections  who  are  im- 
mensely wealthy  by  wheat  raising,  also  we 
know  of  sheep  men  and  cattle  men  who  are 
favorably  situated  who  have  become  im- 
mensely wealthy. 

Returning  again  to  France,  the  dividing 
of  the  land  into  such  small  holdings  has  not 


32  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

placed  France  is  such  a  prosperous  condi- 
tion as  it  would  be  if  the  holdings  were 
larger.  The  amount  of  capital  used  in  the 
operation  of  such  small  holdings  does  not 
admit  of  the  highest  state  of  production, 
and  France  with  her  20  million  acres  of 
wheat  lands  far  superior  as  regards  soil  and 
climate  only  averages  about  17  bushels  of 
wheat  per  acre,  whereas  Great  Britain  with 
her  larger  units  and  consequently  more 
available  cash  for  operating  expenses  aver- 
ages about  33  bushels  per  acre.  Under  our 
present  conditions  of  protection  on  manu- 
factures while  all  our  raw  materials  are 
practically  on  a  free  trade  basis,  I  feel  sure 
is  the  cause  of  our  depletion  of  soil  fertility 
and  if  the  Federal  Government  would  put 
on  an  adequate  protection  on  agricultural 
production,  it  would  become  a  very  easy 
matter  to  place  all  our  returning  soldiers 
and  sailors  in  very  profitable  positions. 

By  way  of  illustration  I  will  quote  a  few 
conditions.  Take  the  suit  of  clothing  I 
wear.  As  a  farmer  in  the  United  States  I 
have  to  produce  and  sell  15  raw  materials 
to  buy  this  one  suit,  whereas  in  France  or 
England  I  should  only  have  to  produce  and 
sell  five  raw  materials  to  buy  one  of  these 
suits. 

Instead  of  the  American  farmer  getting 
an  average  of  25  cents  per  pound  for  his 
grease  wool  he  should  get  50  cents  per 
pound  for  it.    Then  he  would  only  have  to 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  33 

produce  and  sell  eight  raw  materials  to  buy 
one  of  these  suits.  And  take  Oregon  alone, 
she  would  soon  have  10  millions  of  sheep 
instead  of  only  two  millions  at  present,  and 
the  cost  of  the  suit  to  the  purchaser  would 
only  need  be  increased  7  per  cent  of  $3.00. 

Take  the  loaf  of  bread.  Under  ordinary 
conditions  the  American  farmer  has  to  pro- 
duce and  sell  the  raw  materials  for  five 
loaves  of  bread  to  be  able  to  buy  one  loaf, 
whereas  in  England  and  France  the  farmer 
only  has  to  produce  and  sell  one  and  two- 
thirds  raw  materials  to  buy  one  loaf.  If 
the  Federal  Government  would  place  a  $30 
per  ton  import  duty  and  also  a  $30  per  ton 
export  bounty  on  wheat  the  American 
farmer  would  become  immensely  prosper- 
ous and  all  those  depleted,  worn  out  farms 
would  soon  be  refertilized  and  made  worth 
$300  per  acre,  but  Federal  control  of  the 
farmer  would  be  necessary.  All  large  hold- 
ings should  be  sold  to  the  government  at  a 
fair  assessed  value  and  sold  in  100-acre 
tracts  or  more  to  bonafide  farmers.  All 
the  farmers  should  be  forced  to  go  on  a 
four  year's  rotation,  that  is  to  say,  they 
should  not  be  allowed  to  put  their  land  into 
wheat  only  once  in  four  years;  then  under 
the  stimulus  of  a  $2  bushel  permanent  price 
for  wheat  and  everything  else  in  proportion 
we  should  have  60  milHons  of  people  on  the 
land  as  against  30  millions  at  present.  The 
immigration  laws  would  have  to  be  made 


34  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

very  stringent  as  nearly  half  the  capital- 
istic classes  of  Europe  would  want  to  come 
to  the  United  States  of  America.  To  make 
a  long  story  short,  let  me  illustrate  the  re- 
turns of  the  average  100-acre  farm  in  the 
Willamette  Valley  now  as  compared  to  what 
it  would  be  under  that  needed  protection  on 
raw  materials. 

100  acres  at  present : 

30  acres  in  wheat,  yield  16  bushels, 

at  $1  per  bushel $  480.00 

30  acres  in  oats,  yield  40  bushels, 

at  40c  per  bushel 480.00 

10  acres  in  hay  for  working  stock 
10  acres  in  grain  for  working  stock 
20  acres  in  miscellaneous  crops  at 
$30  per  acre 600.00 

$1560.00 
Contra  expenses: 

Taxes $  75.00 

Casual  labor 300.00 

Repairs  400.00 


$775.00      $  785.00 

Living  and  clothing  for  family  of  seven 
persons,  or  $112.04  each. 

Conditions  that  would  exist  if  proper  pro- 
tection were  put  on  raw  materials : 

100  acres  in  Willamette  Valley: 
25  acres  in  wheat,  yield  40  bushels, 

at  $2 $2000.00 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  35 

25  acres  in  oats,  yield  60  bushels, 
at  $1 1500.00 

25  acres  in  animal  husbandry  at 
100  per 2500.00 

23  acres  in  miscellaneous  crops,  at 
100 2300.00 

2  acres  for  hired  men 

$8300.00 

Contra  expenses: 

Taxes $  300.00 

2  hired  men  by  the  year 

with  one  acre  of  land, 

with  good  cottage 

each,    cow,    chickens, 

hogs,  each  $1000  per 

year  2000.00 

Fertilizers  2000.00 

Cost    of    work    horses' 

keep  600.00 

Repairs  1000.00 


$5900.00 
Balance  of  $2400  for  family  of  seven  peo- 
ple, or  $342.86  each. 

Twelve  people  in  farm  cottage  each  with 
$166.66  would  be  better  off  than  the  farm 
owner  under  the  present  system  of  one- 
sided protection. 

Look  at  Cuba.  With  favorable  conditions 
see  the  amount  of  wealth  per  capita.  It  has 
made  my  heart  ache  so  these  many  years  to 


36  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

see  the  poor  clothing  the  American  people 
have  worn,  especially  the  poor  farmers' 
families  as  a  rule.  They  have  shivered  in 
poor  cotton  cloth  when  they  ought  to  have 
the  finest  all  wool  clothing. 

The  automatic  destruction  of  America's 
once  grand  merchant  marine  and  no  one  to 
help  because  people  object  to  subsidies  or 
bounty  when  in  fact  the  import  tariffs  were 
subsidies  and  bounties  pure  and  simple,  only 
called  another  name. 

The  cause  of  the  Agricultural  Bloc  in  the 
Senate  and  House  this  A.  D.  1921  began  50 
years  ago  and  has  taken  all  this  time  to 
assert  itself..  The  action  of  excluding  aliens 
has  been  made  necessary  because  of  the 
wrong  economic  conditions.  Labor  has  been 
made  master  of  the  land,  whereas  with  the 
proper  protection  labor  would  be  greatly  in 
demand  steadily  without  any  vacation  and 
farm  labor  would  be  hired  by  the  year.  (It 
ought  to  be  done.  It  can  be  done.  It  should 
be  done.) 

Jan.  1st,  1922. 

Had  agriculture  received  the  same  pro- 
tection that  manufacturers  did  when  the 
tariffs  were  put  on,  the  United  States  today 
would  be  worth  200  bilhons  of  dollars  more 
than  now  and  have  a  population  of  200  mil- 
lions of  people,  happy,  contented  and  pros- 
perous. One-sided  protection  has  created 
suspicion  and  distrust  between  the  city  and 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  37 

rural  population  and  has  been  the  cause  of 
co-operative  societies  for  self  protection  by 
the  rural  class  which  have  not  protected, 
and  never  can  do  much  good  till  agriculture 
stands  on  the  same  plane  as  manufactures. 
The  Man  of  Gallilee  who  said  whosoever 
giveth  one  of  these  little  ones  a  cup  of  cold 
water  in  My  name  receiveth  his  reward. 
How  shall  this  great  nation  carry  out  that 
Divine  injunction?  By  dividing  its  people 
into  two  classes  the  patrician  or  city  rich  by 
protection  and  the  plebian  or  country  poor 
by  non-protection.  We  hear  of  universal 
peace.  The  carrying  out  of  the  above  in- 
junction both  in  spirit  and  letter  will  only 
bring  permanent  peace  to  any  nation  and 
finally  the  world.  We  saw  the  utterly  self- 
ish and  cold  indifference  to  the  suffering 
world  by  the  idle  rich  during  the  World 
war.  It  was  only  the  noble  minds  of  Amer- 
ica made  so  by  the  constant  battle  with  the 
errors  of  our  surroundings  that  came  to  the 
call  for  help.  We  should  wake  up  and  see 
where  we  are  drifting.  The  Roman  Empire 
broke  when  opulence  smashed  it.  Let  every 
American  citizen  learn  what  it  means  to 
give  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  one  of  these 
little  ones  in  His  name.  It  reaches  into  the 
highest  places  of  state  and  right  away 
along  the  line  to  the  lowest  branch  of  Amer- 
ican citizenship.  Any  American  citizen 
who  works  for  selfish  interest,  either  per- 
sonally or  politically,  is  an  enemy  to  lasting 


38  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

peace.  Selfishness  brought  on  the  French 
Revolution,  the  American  Revolution,  the 
Russian  Revolution,  They  all  came  very 
slov^ly  and  gradually,  but  they  came.  Let 
us  profit  by  the  past  and  make  for  our  beau- 
tiful America  a  glorious  future.  We  are 
dissipating  the  wealth  of  our  arid  lands 
that  rightfully  belongs  to  our  posterity. 
These  lands  would  hold  their  latent  wealth 
for  generations  if  the  water  was  kept  off  of 
it.  The  lands  already  under  cultivation  have 
lost  billions  of  dollars'  worth  of  fertility  by 
erosion  through  poor  methods  of  agricul- 
ture. The  rich  Red  River  Valley  has  lost 
millions  by  erosion.  The  Willamette  Valley 
has  lost  equally  as  much.  The  reason  of 
such  deplorable  waste  is  found  in  the  in- 
equitable tariff  protection  to  our  manufac- 
ture and  to  the  production  of  raw  materials. 
The  import  duty  imposed  on  imported  goods 
is  a  bounty  on  American  labor  and  Amer- 
ican manufactures,  and  although  it  is  very 
evident  such  tariffs  are  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  keep  up  the  standard  of  American 
life,  the  protective  party  has  been  sadly  re- 
miss in  not  putting  on  corresponding  export 
bounties  on  raw  materials  which  we  export 
to  other  countries  in  competition  with  the 
cheap  labor,  and  thereby  forcing  our  pro- 
ducers to  sell  free  trade  raw  material  to 
protected  interests. 

Let  me  illustrate.    We  have  35  cents  per 
bushel  protection  on  wheat  and  we  export 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  39 

wheat  in  competition  with  the  world;  that 
35  cents  tariff  excludes  any  wheat  from 
coming  in,  but  it  does  not  raise  the  price  of 
wheat  to  the  American  farmer;  it  is  only  a 
margin  created  for  the  speculator  to  gamble 
upon,  and  several  times  capitalists  have 
tried  to  corner  it  and  put  that  margin  in 
their  own  coffers.  If  a  corresponding  35 
cents  export  bounty  were  also  placed  on  the 
wheat  then  the  price  would  immediately  be 
raised  up  35  cents  per  bushel  to  the  Amer- 
ican farmer. 

The  same  way  with  cotton.  An  import 
duty  of  10  cents  per  pound ;  and  also  a  cor- 
responding export  bounty,  because  we  ex- 
port cotton  in  competition  with  the  low  paid 
labor  of  other  countries,  it  is  necessary  to 
put  on  a  corresponding  export  bounty  to 
raise  the  price  to  the  American  grower.  See 
what  Representative  Aswell,  Democrat  for 
Louisiana,  said  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, Washington,  D.  C.  He  said  the  South- 
ern farmer  would  not  consent  longer  to  toil 
12  months  a  year  in  the  cotton  fields  unless 
he  could  set  a  fair  price  for  his  product. 
"If  he  is  not  permitted  to  grow  it  at  a  pro- 
fit," said  Mr.  Aswell,  "the  world  problem 
of  the  future  will  not  be  how  to  get  cheap 
cotton,  but  how  to  get  cotton  at  any  price." 
Mr.  Aswell  said  the  Southern  farmer  for  50 
years  had  received  less  than  one-half  the 
actual  cost  of  producing  cotton ;  by  placing 
10  cents  per  pound  import  duty  and  also  a 


40  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

corresponding  10  cents  per  pound  export 
bounty  will  relieve  this  very,  very  sad  con- 
dition. 

Mr.  Aswell  in  saying  for  the  last  50  years 
dates  his  beginning  when  the  tariff  for  war 
revenue  was  put  on.  Think  of  the  suffer- 
ing imposed  on  a  branch  of  our  American 
citizens !  The  wheat  raiser  has  been  placed 
in  just  such  a  predicament  only  he  has  had 
the  virgin  fertility  of  rich  new  land  to  ex- 
haust, but  this  ought  to  stop,  and  the  only 
way  our  nation  can  place  the  American 
wheat  raiser  in  a  position  capable  to  im- 
prove our  nation's  social  fabric  is  to  place 
an  import  duty  of  $30  per  ton  on  wheat  and 
also  an  export  bounty  of  $30  per  ton,  and 
in  order  to  stay  in  the  world's  trade  it  will 
be  necessary  to  place  a  ship  bounty  of  $10 
annually  per  ton  register  on  every  foreign- 
going  American  merchantman. 

Professor  R.  V.  Gunn  of  the  Oregon  Agri- 
cultural College  spoke  during  Farmers' 
Week  on  the  cost  of  producing  a  bushel  of 
wheat  on  40  Sherman  county  farms.  He  said 
the  cost  ranged  from  $1  to  $2.80  a  bushel. 
I  may  say  that  most  agricultural  crops  have 
been  raised  at  a  loss  for  the  last  50  years. 
And  when  Senator  Hatch  instituted  Agri- 
cultural Experimental  Farms  he  saw  the  ef- 
fect and  not  the  cause.  Had  our  statesmen 
placed  enough  protection  on  agriculture  the 
Agricultural  Colleges  would  have  come  au- 
tomatically and  they  would  have  functioned 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  41 

with  the  farm,  whereas  they  have  never  yet 
properly  functioned  with  the  farm.  In  fact, 
they  have  been  a  grand  avenue  of  escape 
for  the  poor  farm  boy  from  a  life  of  slavery 
and  drudgery,  and  have  given  America  a 
grand  army  of  business  and  professional 
men.  A  story  is  told  as  follows  by  a  Mr. 
Russell  Hawkins,  a  merchant,  of  the  sale 
of  100  bushels  of  wheat  by  a  Dakota  farmer 
for  $100  that  finally  reached  the  consumer 
in  bread  for  which  the  consumer  paid 
$749.10.  The  100  bushels  of  wheat  made 
7491  one-pound  loaves  which  retailed  to  the 
consumer  for  10  cents  per  loaf.  The  farmer 
got  1.33  cents,  the  miller  .66  cents,  freight  to 
railroad  .24  cents,  baker  6.40  cents,  retailer 
1.5  cents  per  loaf. 

If  an  export  bounty  of  $1  per  bushel  was 
paid  the  American  farmer  the  cost  of  the 
bread  would  be  only  $849.10,  or  just  1.33 
cents  more  per  loaf,  or  11.33  cents  per  loaf. 
This  small  difference  would  change  a  deca- 
dent agriculture  to  a  progressive,  prosper- 
ous agriculture. 

The  hundred  bushels  of  wheat  at  $1  per 
bushel  in  Europe  would  reach  the  consumer 
for  $200  in  bread  or  for  less  than  3  cents  per 
pound  loaf.  The  difference  of  cost  to  the 
consumer  in  America  is  caused  by  tariff 
protection.  American  labor  is  three  times 
as  high  as  European  labor  in  normal  times 
and  city  rents  are  just  about  in  the  same 
proportion.    The    only    salvation    for    the 


42  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

American  farmer  is  to  place  an  export 
bounty  on  his  wheat  so  he  may  have  a 
square  deal.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  the 
cotton  grower  of  the  South.  It  is  also  ruin- 
ous to  make  the  importation  of  any  raw  ma- 
terials from  foreign  lands  free  or  nearly 
free. 

Take,  for  instance,  free  wool.  It  forced 
the  price  of  American  wool  so  cheap  that  to 
buy  one  suit  of  all  wool  tailor  made  cost  the 
price  of  two  bales  of  wool,  or  36  raw  ma- 
terials to  buy  one  finished  suit;  with  the 
low  tariff  formerly  placed  on  wool  it  com- 
pelled the  wool  raiser  to  bring  15  raw  ma- 
terials to  buy  one  suit  of  all  wool  tailor 
made  clothing  in  normal  times,  whereas  in 
Europe  it  only  cost  the  wool  grower  five 
raw  materials  to  buy  one  finished  suit.. 

The  tariff  or  import  duty  on  grease  wool 
should  be  50  cents  per  pound.  The  rural 
population  should  be  able  to  pay  just  as 
high  scale  of  wage  as  the  city  and  then  the 
evil  of  aliens  coming  here  and  amassing  for- 
tunes in  operating  a  few  acres  of  garden 
land  near  our  city  and  getting  the  prices  of 
our  protected  city  stores  would  be  elimin- 
ated entirely. 

^  A  good  index  of  how  this  works  was  pub- 
lished in  a  Honolulu  paper  as  follows :  Pro- 
fessor Y.  Sakon,  Aoyma  Gakuin,  a  Chris- 
tian institution  in  Tokio,  who  recently 
passed  through  here  on  his  way  to  the  main- 
land, believes  not  only  in  the  annexation  of 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  43 

Japan  to  the  United  States,  but  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  international  cabinet  with 
headquarters  in  Jerusalem  to  rule  over  the 
world  regardless  of  nations  or  races. 

"One  would  think  that  Japan  would  be 
lost  by  annexation  to  the  United  States," 
he  said,  "but  I  believe  the  Japanese  people 
through  annexation  would  eventually  come 
to  own  the  United  States  and  that  they 
would  gain  by  it/' 

If  the  proper  tariffs  and  bounties  were 
put  on  American  agriculture  the  alien 
would  not  be  able  to  come  here  as  I  have 
stated  previously  and  amass  a  fortune  in  a 
short  time.  During  the  war  the  sugar 
countries  made  immense  amounts  on  sugar. 
One  Honolulu,  T.  H.,  paper  states  the  enor- 
mous bonus  paid  by  sugar  plantations  dur- 
ing the  past  months  has  enabled  many  of 
the  common  laborers  to  save  an  average  of 
$150  per  month.  Japanese  live  frugally  and 
as  the  plantation  provides  house  rent  free, 
their  only  expenditures  are  on  clothes  and 
food.  Some  of  the  Japanese  laborers  who 
have  resided  here  for  years  have  over  $30,- 
000  in  the  banks  to  their  accounts.  This 
prosperity  is  caused  by  tariff  protection  of 
sugar. 

The  cause  of  the  Agricultural  Bloc  in  the 
Houses  of  National  Representatives  started 
50  years  ago  when  a  one-sided  protection 
was  placed  on  American  industry  and  it  has 
had  a  far-reaching  effect  on  our  national 


44  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

life.  I  cannot  help  but  think  if  the  hun- 
dreds of  miUions  of  dollars  paid  for  irriga- 
tion schemes  had  been  paid  the  wheat  and 
cotton  grower  and  the  foreign  going  ship 
owner  in  bounties,  we  should  now  be  worth' 
at  least  200  billions  of  dollars  in  actual 
wealth  we  do  not  now  own,  and  have  a 
happy,  contented,  prosperous  nation  of  at 
least  200  millions  of  people.  We  have  lost 
more  fertility  which  has  run  into  our  rivers 
from  our  cultivated  lands  than  have  been 
taken  out  of  our  irrigation  lands,  because 
the  price  received  by  the  American  farmer 
has  been  entirely  too  low  to  keep  our  agri- 
culture up  to  the  proper  standard.  Then  we 
should  have  all  the  mass  of  latent  wealth  in 
our  arid  lands  in  a  perfect  state  of  con- 
servation for  our  future  generations.  When- 
ever things  come  to  an  equitable  basis  in 
the  farm  with  the  city  and  the  status  of  the 
farm  is  lifted  300  per  cent  higher,  then  these 
irrigation  schemes  are  going  to  clash  be- 
cause they  are  going  to  make  the  cost  of 
production  entirely  out  of  proportion.  We 
have  enough  abandoned  lands  when  brought 
back  by  placing  the  farmer  in  his  right  fi- 
nancial condition  to  supply  this  nation  and 
leave  a  lot  for  export  for  the  next  100  years 
without  touching  and  drawing  on  our  arid 
land's  fertile  wealth. 

I  learned  from  two  New  York  gentlemen 
in  cne  week  in  the  First  Congregational 
Church,  Portland,  Oregon.    One,  the  Rev. 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  45 

Mr.  Wirtz  of  New  York,  in  his  sermon  said, 
they  tell  us  we  should  move  the  church  down 
among  the  business  sections  of  the  city. 
How  could  we  do  that?  Why  last  week,  he 
said,  property  in  the  business  section  of 
New  York  city  sold  for  35  million  dollars 
per  acre ;  that  is  seven  times  its  value  in  the 
city  of  London.  And  during  the  same  week 
at  a  Brotherhood  Luncheon  we  were  asked 
to  become  acquainted  with  our  next  neigh- 
bors. I  introduced  myself  to  a  gentleman 
on  my  right,  and  saying  I  was  interested  in 

country  property.  He  said,  my  name  is . 

I  have  been  superintending  the  building  of 
schools  at  Binghampton,  New  York,  but  I 
went  on  a  farm.  All  around  me  were  aban- 
doned farms  and  the  one  I  was  on  had  just 
as  well  be  abandoned  as  it  was  completely 
exhausted. 

When  I  was  a  young  man  I  had  charge  of 
a  fine  Merino  sheep  ranch  in  Alameda 
county,  California,  and  I  saw  the  hoboes  be- 
fore they  were  real  hoboes.  They  were 
young  men  from  good  eastern  homes  who 
would  work  on  the  wheat  ranches  for  $2  a 
day  as  long  as  they  were  wanted  and  then 
discharged  at  a  minute's  notice.  They  used 
to  come  by  carrying  their  blankets,  out  of 
work  and  looking  for  something  to  eat.  I 
made  arrangements  with  the  owner  of  the 
ranch  so  I  could  measure  up  some  pole  oak 
for  them  to  saw  for  a  meal.  This  was  caused 
by  high  wages  and  low  priced  wheat.    The 


46  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

farmer  could  not  afford  to  keep  his  labor 
steady  and  those  poor  men  became  hoboes, 
drifting  from  Oregon  to  California  with  the 
seasons.  When  I  look  back  I  remember 
about  30  years  ago  just  at  sunset,  I  was 
gathering  my  little  brood  for  evening 
prayer.  I  looked  out  west  towards  my  po- 
tato pits.  I  saw  a  poor  hobo  quietly  walk- 
ing towards  the  pits.  I  never  let  him  know 
he  was  seen  and  no  doubt  he  got  a  chicken 
as  well,  but  I  had  a  heart  full  of  sympathy 
for  him,  because  I  knew  he  and  millions  of 
others  were  the  victims  of  one  of  the  crud- 
est acts  of  vicious  national  legislation  ever 
imposed  on  a  civiHzed  race  of  people.  I  had 
seen  things  differently  back  in  the  State  of 
Ohio,  where  I  lived  among  a  happy  and 
prosperous  rural  people  not  yet  affected  by 
the  tariffs.  The  hired  men  were  hired  by 
the  year  and  had  steady  work.  The  married 
men  were  furnished  a  house  and  only  $20 
per  month,  but  when  one-sided  protection 
forced  the  price  of  unskilled  labor  to  $2  per 
day  the  farmer  had  to  skimp  along  with 
casual  labor  and  in  the  meantime  the  la- 
borer either  went  into  the  city  or  became  a 
wandering  tramp.  I  think  I  have  shown 
very  conclusively  in  a  previous  part  of  this 
booklet  where  that  condition  can  be  com- 
pletely cured.  I  attended  a  lecture  by  the 
noted  Miss  Ida  Tarbell  on  the  cause  of  un- 
employment. She  seemed  totally  ignorant 
of  the  vital  facts  and  never  once  alluded  to 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  47 

the  out-of-balance  condition  of  our  rural 
life.  During  a  drive  for  the  poor  starving 
Armenians  I  took  a  section  among  the 
working  people  with  a  gentleman  who  was 
a  Harvard  graduate  from  the  East,  lately 
engaged  in  business  in  this  city.  When  we 
got  back  to  the  Portland  Hotel,  our  head- 
quarters, he  gave  me  his  cheque  for  $25  and 
I  gave  him  my  cheque.  He  said,  Mr.  Withy- 
combe,  I  had  no  idea  there  was  so  much 
poverty  in  the  city  of  Portland  as  we  have 
seen  today.  This  conditions  is  almost  en- 
tirely caused  by  the  conditions  I  have  ex- 
plained and  I  fear  for  our  America  if  some 
wise  and  strong  statesman  does  not  adjust 
our  national  economics,  so  our  homes,  both 
rural  and  city,  shall  become  happy  and 
prosperous.  Under  the  prevaihng  condi- 
tions our  farms  are  being  treated  like  a 
piece  of  merchandise,  used  as  long  as  profit- 
able and  then  thrown  aside  Hke  an  old  shoe. 
Sixty  milHons  of  people  placed  in  our  rural 
homes  with  permanent  prosperity  will  safe- 
guard this  nation  better  than  10  millions 
of  trained  soldiers. 

In  my  boyhood  days  I  saw  the  American 
merchant  marine  before  it  was  hit  by  the 
protected  tariff.  Several  American  ships 
were  in  the  EngHsh  Expedition  up  the  Red 
Sea  to  Annesley  Bay  to  carry  commissary 
stores  and  troops  to  the  Abysinnia  war, 
when  Great  Britain  spent  50  millions  sterl- 
ing to  recover  her  ambassador  and  his  staff 


48  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

from  the  hands  of  King  Theodore.  That 
ambassador  was  Mr.  Grant  and  he  saved 
his  company  from  execution  by  Theodore 
by  his  Scotch  wit.  He  told  Theodore  that 
Queen  Victoria  was  a  widow  and  if  he  would 
send  a  message  that  Mr.  Grant  would  write 
by  a  courier  he  thought  he  could  arrange 
a  marriage.  Of  course  Mr.  Grant  sent  a 
secret  code  and  apprised  the  British  Gov- 
ernment of  their  predicament,  and  the  first 
thing  King  Theodore  knew  elephants  with 
breech-loading  Armstrong  cannon  lashed 
on  their  back  were  battering  down  the  walls 
of  Magdala.  One  American  ship,  the  Bos- 
ton, lay  alongside  us  for  seven  months.  She 
had  1000  tons  of  baled  hay.  She  was  not 
required  to  unload  one  bale  and  when  she 
returned  to  Bombay  with  her  cargo  it  was 
in  the  rainy  monsoons,  she  was  given  her 
cargo  of  hay  because  the  hatches  could  not 
be  opened.  The  captain  took  his  cargo  to 
the  Maritus  and  sold  it  for  $30  per  ton.  The 
Boston  earned  $65,000  for  her  eight  month's 
work. 

About  30  years  ago  Germany  sent  40  wise 
men  all  over  the  world  studying  trade  con- 
ditions. They  visited  our  state  and  all  of 
America.  They  saw  our  mistakes.  On  their 
return  to  Germany,  Minister  of  the  Interior 
Delbenck  had  put  55  marks  per  ton  import 
duty  on  wheat  and  the  same  ratio  on  meats 
and  other  farm  products.  That  increased 
Germany's  yield  of  wheat  from  23  to  33 


ITS  CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  49 

bushels  and  at  the  price  of  an  average  of 
$1.50  per  bushel  when  our  wheat  was  only 
70  cents  per  bushel  and  made  the  German 
farmer  so  prosperous  they  were  enabled  to 
buy  large  quantities  of  potash  from  the 
government  and  they  increased  their  crops 
of  potatoes  till  they  could  raise  400  bushels 
per  acre.  They  brought  up  agriculture  so 
that  they  were  enabled  to  raise  85  per  cent 
of  all  the  food  consumed  by  65  millions  of 
people  on  an  area  the  size  of  Texas.  And 
that  was  one  of  the  factors  that  enabled  her 
to  fight  a  world  war.  To  keep  15  millions 
of  tons  of  foreign  merchant  marine  ships 
prosperous  the  United  States  would  need 
to  pay  the  ship  owners  $10  per  ton  register 
annually.  To  make  the  American  farmer 
really  prosperous  the  United  States  would 
need  to  pay  the  farmer  $1  per  bushel  export 
and  place  an  import  duty  of  $1  per  bushel 
bounty  on  his  wheat,  and  to  make  the  cot- 
ton grower  equally  prosperous  the  United 
States  would  need  to  place  10  cents  per 
pound  import  duty  and  10  cents  per  pound 
export  bounty  on  cotton.  Or  summarized : 
15  milHon  tons  of  merchant  ma- 
rine would  cost $150,000,000 

100  millions  of  export  wheat....  100,000,000 
2  bilHon  pounds  export  cotton....  200,000,000 


$450,000,000 
The  income  tax   of   the    United    States 


60  THE  AGRICULTURAL  BLOC 

equals  three  billions  of  dollars  per  year  in 
round  numbers  or  six  times  as  much  as  the 
above  bounties  would  cost.  Yet  in  ten  years 
at  an  outlay  of  four  billion  five  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars  the  United  States  would  have 
added  national  wealth  of  200  billions  of  dol- 
lars instead  of  losing  billions  in  the  exhaus- 
tion of  her  lands.  Her  city  trade,  which  is 
about  10  billions  of  dollars  per  year,  would 
be  increased  to  15  billions  of  dollars  per 
year,  and  her  rural  trade,  which  is  about 
three  billions  of  dollars  per  year,  would  be 
increased  to  nine  billions  of  dollars  per 
year.  Her  15  millions  of  tons  of  merchant 
marine,  which  at  present  is  nearly  value- 
less, would  be  worth  three  billions  of  dol- 
lars. Her  agricultural  lands,  now  worth  50 
billions,  would  be  worth  150  billions.  Her 
cities  would  be  worth  at  least  150  billions 
more  than  now. 

Minister  of  the  Interior  Delbruck  of  Ger- 
many said  a  small  import  duty  on  raw  ma- 
terial for  10  years  added  two  billion  five 
hundred  million  to  Germany's  national 
wealth,  gave  permanent  employment  to  her 
people  and  entirely  suspended  emigration 
of  her  subjects,  which  had  been  forced  to 
leave  the  country  by  800,000  a  year  pre- 
viously. I  feel  certain  if  our  statesmen  will 
look  into  the  utterances  of  this  little  book 
they  will  find  out  what  is  printed  comes 
very  nearly  to  the  exact  truth. 

THOMAS  WITHYCOMBE. 

432  Twelfth  Street, 
Portland,  Oregon. 


PRESS    OF 

H.    C.    BROWNE    A    CO, 

PORTLAND.  ORE: 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
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